Multiple short‐term storage: A task to evaluate the coordination function of the central executive

The present paper explores one of the multiple aspects of working memory, specifically the coordinating function of the central executive with a complex double‐stimuli task. Performance on this task requires coordinating the short‐term maintenance of verbal as well as visuospatial information in preparation for recall. The task involves the single recall of words, the single recall of locations, or the recall of localized words. The study of the double‐stimuli task involves three classical interference tasks (articulatory suppression, Moar box tracking, and standing balance position) and comparing with simple span tasks (word recall and location recall). Word and location recall in this double‐stimuli task involves observing the classical interference effects: articulatory suppression impairs word recall performance without affecting location recall, whereas in visuospatial interference tasks the reverse is true. A second analysis showed that when performance on the double‐stimuli task (implying the simultaneous maintenance of verbal and visuospatial material at the same time) is compared with performances on short‐term memory tasks (classical word span or location span using the same material), a significant decrease in performance is observed. In a third analysis a score specific to the complex task was computed (corrected score). This score takes into account the recall capacity for both words and locations. This score, directly related to the capacities of coordination implied in the task, is sensitive to most attentional requirements of interference tasks. Contrary to what can be observed on location recall, the standing balance position did not significantly decrease performance. These results are consistent with an interpretation of the working memory according to which coordination of the subsystems is a function of the central executive.     

Effects of Perceived Organizational Support on Objective and Subjective Career Success via Need Satisfaction: A Study Among French Psychologists

The authors examined potential links between perceived organizational support (POS) and objective and subjective career success through the satisfaction of the 3 basic psychological needs (BPNs) posited in self‐determination theory. The inclusion of BPN satisfaction as a mediator provides an interesting route, suggesting it is a condition for POS to lead to career success. The authors submitted an online questionnaire to 379 French counseling psychologists and examined the responses using a cross‐sectional design with only 1 measurement. The results indicated the indirect effects of POS on objective career success via the satisfaction of the 3 BPNs and on subjective career success via satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and competence.     

Fitts' Theorem and Movement Time Dissociation for Amplitude and Width Manipulations: Replying to Hoffmann

The commentary by Errol Hoffmann in this issue asserts that previous work by our group provides the spurious conclusion that amplitude and width manipulations to a movement environment elicit dissociable relations between movement time (MT) and P. M. Fitts' (1954) index of difficulty (ID). Hoffmann concludes that any such dissociation is the result of actions evoked entirely as ballistic. In this reply, we demonstrate that Hoffmann's commentary is a clear misrepresentation of the study goals and conclusions stated by our group. Additionally, we provide kinematic evidence that actions involving online trajectory amendments are associated with dissociable MT–ID relations for amplitude versus width manipulations. Finally, we contend that the kinematic analyses of movement trajectories, and Hoffmann's failure to acknowledge its importance, is an important step in further understanding speed–accuracy relations in human movement.     

Change in physical and psychological health over time in patients with cardiovascular disease: on the benefits of being self-determined,physically active,and eating well

This study tested a longitudinal model examining the roles of motivation and perceived competence in the prediction of physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) in individuals with cardiovascular diseases, and the effects of adopting these behaviors on individuals’ health. Participants completed measures of global motivation (baseline), contextual motivation and perceived competence for PA and HE (3 months), and self-reports of PA and HE behaviors (6 months). Physiological indicators and life satisfaction were assessed at the baseline and at 12 months. Structural equation modeling supported that individuals with self-determined motivation (SDM) were more likely to feel competent in changing their lifestyle and to engage in moderate and strenuous (vs. mild) exercise and HE behaviors, which had beneficial effects on individuals’ physiological and psychological health. This research confirms the respective roles of SDM and perceived competence in the health behavior change process and emphasizes the key function of SDM in the adherence of healthy behaviors over time.     

Eye movements may cause motor contagion effects

When a person executes a movement, the movement is more errorful while observing another person’s actions that are incongruent rather than congruent with the executed action. This effect is known as “motor contagion”. Accounts of this effect are often grounded in simulation mechanisms: increased movement error emerges because the motor codes associated with observed actions compete with motor codes of the goal action. It is also possible, however, that the increased movement error is linked to eye movements that are executed simultaneously with the hand movement because oculomotor and manual-motor systems are highly interconnected. In the present study, participants performed a motor contagion task in which they executed horizontal arm movements while observing a model making either vertical (incongruent) or horizontal (congruent) movements under three conditions: no instruction, maintain central fixation, or track the model’s hand with the eyes. A significant motor contagion-like effect was only found in the ‘track’ condition. Thus, ‘motor contagion’ in the present task may be an artifact of simultaneously executed incongruent eye movements. These data are discussed in the context of stimulation and associative learning theories, and raise eye movements as a critical methodological consideration for future work on motor contagion.     

Nonchildhood Sexual Abuse in Mexican American and Mexican College Students

This study aimed to assess and compare sexual abuse (SA) rates in female and male Mexican American college students (N = 514) and 2 samples of Mexican college students (N = 161 and N = 227). Participants responded to the Sexual Experiences Survey Victim Form (SES-SFV). SA prevalence and frequency rates were compared between sample groups for 3 categories of SA: nonchildhood SA (SA-NC, experienced since age 14), SA experienced in the previous 12 months (SA-12M), and lifetime self-labeled SA (SA-LL, any experience identified as abuse or rape by participants). Higher rates of self-reported SA were consistently found for Mexican versus U.S. samples. However, SA incidence was also consistently higher in older individuals and females; more recently experienced SA was reported at lower rates and with greater gender congruence than more distal SA; and variation between Mexican samples was roughly equal to variation between Mexican and U.S. samples. Findings show cross-national variation in SA rates.     

Loneliness and solitude in adolescence: A confirmatory factor analysis of alternative models

The present study tested a four-factor model of adolescent loneliness and solitude that comprises peer-related loneliness, family loneliness, negative attitude toward solitude, and positive attitude toward solitude. Nine different instruments for a total of 14 scales and derivative subscales were completed by a sample of mid-adolescents (N = 534) from Grades 10 through 12 (aged 15–18 years) in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. As expected, the four-factor solution provided a better fit to the data than did alternative models that comprised just a single factor, or two and three factors. Use of the Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents (LACA) is recommended, because the instrument measures all four aspects of the model. Implications for current theories on adolescent loneliness and associated phenomena, such as adolescents’ attitude toward being on their own, are briefly discussed.     

Parental psychological control and dimensions of identity formation in emerging adulthood.

Longitudinal data were used to evaluate whether parental psychological control would have a negative impact on identity formation. Perceived psychological control and 4 identity dimensions (i.e., commitment making, exploration in breadth, identification with commitment, and exploration in depth) were assessed 5 times in a college sample. Associations between psychological control and identity (i.e., negative associations with both commitment dimensions and a positive association with exploration in breadth) were stable across time. Further, the developmental pathways of these constructs appeared to be correlated: Increases in psychological control were associated with simultaneous decreases in both commitment dimensions. Finally, reciprocal effects were found: Psychological control inhibited progress in both commitment dimensions, whereas exploration in breadth led to increased psychological control. The authors have provided suggestions for helping emerging adults to approach the task of identity formation.     

The intergenerational transmission of empathy-related responding in adolescence: the role of maternal support

This study proposed and tested an integrated model of the intergenerational transmission of empathy-related responding in adolescence. This model included maternal support as a mediator of the intergenerational transmission of empathy and examined friendship quality as an outcome of adolescent empathy. In a sample of middle adolescents and their mothers (N = 177), maternal support significantly predicted the empathy dimensions perspective taking and sympathy and mediated the mother-child concordance of perspective taking but not sympathy. Adolescent empathy (and perspective taking in particular) predicted adolescent friendship quality and served as an intervening variable in the relation between maternal support and friendship quality. Implications of the present study for research on the socialization of empathy-related responding and social adjustment in general are outlined.     

Visual objects can potentiate a grasping neural simulation which interferes with manual response execution

Previous studies on visuomotor priming have provided insufficient information to determine whether the reach-to-grasp potentiation of a non-target object produces a specific effect during response execution. In order to answer this question, subjects were instructed to reach and grasp a response device with either a power or a precision grip, depending on whether the stimulus they saw was empty or full. Stimuli consisted of containers (graspable with either a power or a precision grip), with non-graspable stimuli added as a control condition (geometrical shapes). The image of the non-target object was removed during the execution phase. Results demonstrate slower execution responses related to motor incompatibility, though conversely, no faster responses with motor compatibility. Moreover, any visuomotor priming effect required that the container be displayed during response execution. These data suggest that during response execution, motor incompatibility produces a disruptive effect likely due to competition between two cerebral events: motor control of the actual response execution and visual object reach-to-grasp neural simulation.